Alibaba Nabs Google’s Investor Relations Chief

Jane Penner, who was leading the investor relations team at Google Inc., is set to join Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., a person familiar with the matter said. The announcement is expected later today.

Ms. Penner is a former journalist, having been an editor at TheStreet.com (where she worked closely with columnist Jim Cramer). She then moved to Bear Sterans, where she was a managing director and editor for equity research.

She is jumping right into the frying pan as head of investor relations at Alibaba. The Chinese e-commerce giant is set to launch what could be the biggest IPO of all time, at $20 billion-plus, after the Labor Day holiday.

She will start at Alibaba on Aug. 11, the person familiar with matter said, after more than six years at Google.

At Google, she made a splash when the company became the first mega-cap to stop posting investor communications to wire services, but rather directly to its own website, CFO.com reported at the time.